“The Swan” returns by popular demand to provide new Mississippi College students and parents with a truckload of laughs on August 24th.

Also known as “America’s Minister of Encouragement,” Dennis Swanberg will be the keynote speaker at a Saturday afternoon convocation welcoming hundreds of MC family members at First Baptist Church Clinton. The free event begins at 2 p.m.

His laugh machine will provide comic relief to his Mississippi College audience just hours after a hectic and hot summer move-in day for freshman and transfer students.

Based in the Bayou State, Swanberg is often on the road speaking to more than 150 church groups, business organizations, civic clubs and colleges around the nation each year.

Expect to hear the former Baptist preacher from Monroe, Louisiana do hilarious impressions of former U.S. presidents like Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. If you like movie stars, he does a superb John Wayne or Jimmy Stewart impression. And “The Swan” always does a terrific job imitating folks like legendary TV deputy sheriff Barney Fife, longtime evangelist Billy Graham or movie characters like Forrest Gump.

Along the way, Swanberg offers some sage advice to his audiences from a Christian perspective. And he always likes to talk about the funny college experiences of his sons, Chad and Dustin, both proud Mississippi College graduates.

Chad Swanberg says he loves to hear his dad look back and poke fun at his undergraduate days at Baptist-affiliated MC. “Everybody loves to hear their name. I’m honored to have a father who loves his family and encourages other people,” says the 2005 Mississippi College graduate in a telephone interview.

A former head football coach who’s now an insurance agent with Southern Farm Bureau in Louisiana, the 31-year-old Chad Swanberg feels blessed to be a Mississippi College graduate. “I’m grateful to be an alumnus of Mississippi College and thank them for the opportunity they gave me in life.”

Even though the August 24th guest speaker figures to take some verbal jabs at his Mississippi College experiences, younger brother Dustin Swanberg remains a big-time fan of Swanberg Ministries based in Monroe, Louisiana.

The afternoon convocation at the Clinton church will draw a number of Mississippi College leaders, including President Lee Royce, as well as a contingent of faculty and staff members as the university launches its 187th academic year in late August.

Contact Andy Kanengiser, University News Coordinator, at 601.925.7760 or at kanengis@mc.edu.